After missing from the highest step of an ISSF podium since 2010, the Cypriot shooter came back, winning on the layouts of the ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Lonato, Italy, the last world-class match before the Olympics.
Cyprus’ Georgios Achilleos won today’s Skeet Men Final, the last medal match of the ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Lonato, Italy.
Achilleos finished on the highest step of the podium with a total score of 147 hits, after outdoing Russia’s Valery Shomin in a shoot-off for Gold 14 to 13 hits.
The 31-year old Cypriot champion, ranked eight in the world, made it to the final with a qualification score of 122 hits, and played a perfect final round, hitting 25 targets out of 25, beating then Shomin in the sudden-death tie breaker for the Gold.
Achilleos had one his last ISSF World Cup Gold medal here in Lonato, in 2010, while his last ISSF podium dates back to 2011, when he finished in second at the ISSF World Cup in Maribor.
“I don’t want to talk about the past. I had a bad period with shoot-off, but I am back in shape now.” The Cypriot shooter commented about missing a few podiums at shoot-offs in the recent period.
“I am really looking forward to the Olympic Games. I am doing good, and I have new materials: a new shotgun and new ammunition. I am ready to go for it.” Achilleos added about today’s final.
Finishing in second behind him, the Silver medal went to Russia’s 40-year old Valery Shomin, ranked sixth in the world, and finalists at the last two World Cup Stages in Tucson (USA) and London. The Russian finalist qualified with 122 targets, and hit 25 in the final as Achilleos, loosing then a determinant clay in the shoot-off.
With a total score of 146 hits (122 qualification targets + 24 clays in the final), Denmark’s Jasper Hansen secure the Bronze medal, his second ISSF medal following the Bronze he had pocketed at last year’s ISSF World Cup in Beijing. He finished today’s final with one target of advantage on the 26-year old Greek shooter Efhimios Mitas, who closed with a total of 145 hits, after passing through a qualification shoot-off with 120+10 hits and a perfect final with 25 hits. Mitas had won the first World Cup Stage of the year in Tucson, scoring a perfect World Record of 150 hits, climbing the world ranking up to the third place.
And 145 targets was also the final score of the home shooter Luigi Lodde, the 32-year old Italian shooter who lost his chances to finish on the podium by missing a low-house target on station five. He was followed in sixth by world’s number 1, Norway’s Tore Brovold, 41, the 2008 Olympic Silver medallist. Brovold made it to the final with 121 hits, sliding then down in the placements after he missed a target in station four.
The Skeet Men Final concluded the ISSF World Cup in Lonato, the last World Cup Stage for Shotgun events. The ISSF Shotgun World Cup Final will take place in Maribor in September 20-26.